Sugar Fruit
by Onions Make Me Cry
Summary: [R x S] Riku contemplates the taste of the paupu fruit, with a secretly curious Sora in tow.


**Author's Note**: My first Kingdom Hearts entry! Not that I havent written a bunch before, but, ahhh how they were bad. And so I did everyone a favor and ditched them. But something about that damn video game and it's sequel coming out has gotten me going again. God bless the love triangle.

**Title**: Sugar Fruit

**Author**: Onions Make Me Cry

**Pairing**: Riku + Sora ?

**Rating**: PG (wow, an all-time low rating, haha! Err.. sheepish )

**Story**: Riku considers the taste of the paupu, with a secretly curious Sora in tow.

* * *

"Here." 

Riku extended an arm to Sora, in which a thin yellow slice of fruit was still pressed against the knife he'd cut it with.

Sora looked up from the newspaper puzzle he'd been solving, half unaware of his friend's presence at all as they sat together on the falling paupu tree. Realizing what was being offered gave him a start though, and he dropped the paper to the sandy ground to fix his best friend with a confused stare.

"Why'd you pick that?"

Riku shrugged, and pulled the slice of paupu back to himself. "I always wanted to see what it tasted like. People talk about it so much, and nobody ever eats it." he looked down at the fruit contemplatively.

The day was a bright one. Thick, cottony clouds hung in billowing clumps along the aquamarine horizon, and silver shorefish glinted in the sun as they swam around the wooden barricade between the island and the sea. Island monkeys chattered amongst themselves in the tall trees, and all around the boys, the wind carried to them the rushing sounds of life.

Eyeing Riku suspiciously for a moment, Sora tried to return to the calmness of a few minutes ago. Throwing out his legs over both sides of the trunk, the boy stretched out along the tree and turned blue eyes to the towering shape of his best friend, still sitting.

"I thought you were gonna share the paupu with Kairi." despite meaning to, the words came out a little jealous and bitter.

The older boy was still staring down into the hole he'd dug out of the side of the fruit. "Yeah, well...Maybe I still will." But for long moments, he sat in silence after making that comment, and refused to look at Sora, though his friend tried to seek his eyes out.

"Well you better not." Sora at last settled on muttering, and tucked his hands behind his head. "'cause I don't want to get stuck as a third wheel or anything."

That cracked a smile across Riku's lips, though it was a silent and secret one.

"What do you suppose it tastes like?" The older boy wondered aloud.

"Dunno. Sweet, I guess."

Riku frowned. "Maybe."

The wind rushed low and fast down on the pair, and the paupu trunk swayed ever so slightly from it. Sora closed his eyes as the warm lull enveloped him, and a peaceful smile lingered at the corner of his lips.

But Riku still sat frowning down at the juicing fruit in his lap. After a silence, he cast a furtive glance in Sora's direction, and seeing him sleeping, smiled both a little amused and a little sadly.

In front of them, the ocean stretched forward and into nothing. Thinking quietly to himself, and listening to the soft breathing by his side, Riku took in the silence of peace, and the serenity of the island. That idea sent a knot into his stomach, and feeling a little agitated all of the sudden, instead looked once again to the paupu fruit in his lap. It was sweating along the brim of where he'd sliced a bit from between two prongs, and the faintly pink juice dribbled over the edge and down onto Riku's fingers. And then, with an apprehensive expression, the quiet boy haltingly brought the slice against his knife up to his mouth, and took a bite.

It was bitter and tasteless. Riku cringed mid-bite, though after a moment forced himself to continue chewing. No wonder people talked about the paupu but never ate it. It was a beautiful fruit, but tasted awful. Though, looking down at Sora's clean and peaceful face, a look of unhappy resolution took Riku over, and he popped the last bit of the slice into his mouth.

Then, lying the fruit and the knife down, the older boy slipped down from the trunk and began to walk away. Sora would sleep better without disturbances. But the thought of him brought one final look back to the sleeping boy, and Riku paused. For a whole minute he stood like that, still as a cat and half twisted around to stare back along the figure spread across the tree trunk. And then, acting before he could change his mind or let fear take him over, he tiptoed over to Sora and bent to kiss the smooth pucker of the corner of his mouth. _Not a real kiss, Sora, don't get mad. Just a little bit of comfort. _

Sora smelled like tree bark, and the sweet stink of the sea breeze. Or was that Sora at all? Riku wondered at that, but didn't dare try for a second opinion. Instead, buckling his expression down into a serious neutral, the boy simply turned and walked away.

_Let it sleep. It was just a made-up story anyway._

_

* * *

+_

_

* * *

_

When Sora woke, the distant horizon was beginning to turn the faintest shade of red. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, now a little chilly from the breeze, though not too uncomfortably so. The sun had moved back behind the towering palm trees, and without it's warmth, napping wasn't nearly so pleasant.

A mighty yawn suddenly erupted from deep down in the pit of Sora's stomach, and he stretched his arms wide, as if wishing to embrace the very sunset, and let it blow out of him. With a contented sigh, the boy slouched over again, and smacked his lips, though tasting something curiously bitter brought a mild look of disgust to his face. He'd have to brush his teeth.

Turning to see Riku, Sora was disappointed to find himself alone. Sometimes his friend would stay and watch over him while he slept, but apparently today the older boy had a more important agenda.

Instead, what was in his place was the bright fleshy yellow of the paupu Riku had picked, sitting next to his friend's glimmering silver knife. Though a chunk was missing from the fruit, that particular slice was nowhere to be seen.

Peering curiously down at the thing, Sora twisted one leg over the trunk and scooted up to it. With nobody to watch him, he was free to embrace his own curiosity about the fruit. Riku's prattling about it _had _made Sora curious. More curious, in fact, that he was willing to even begin to try to deny. And then there was Riku himself, so interested in it. Why? What was it about the paupu that kept his friend coming back to it? Kept him talking about it? Well, whatever was fascinating for Riku, was just as important to Sora, if not more so. Sora might even decide that he'd been interested in it first later on, just to try to get a one-up. But the true fact of it was that he really was curious. And the glinting silver of Riku's knife made the temptation just a little too great for anyone like Sora to stand.

And then there was the glistening slice of paupu already cut out. Tauntingly absent.

As the blue-eyed boy scooped the fruit and the knife up, Riku's voice echoed in his mind.

'_Don't tell me you really believe in all that fairytale mumbo-jumbo? Sora, I thought you were smarter than that.'_

'_Are you afraid of getting stuck to me? Well, the only person I want to get stuck to is Kairi.'_

'_Sora, don't be a chicken!'_

'_Sora!'_

Firming in resolve, Sora hastily cut a wild chunk off the side of the fruit, (not nearly half as clean a slice as Riku's previous own) and stuffed the chunk quickly into his mouth.

Instantly, the boy began to gag.

But Riku's imaginary taunts continued to echo in Sora's mind, and with a heart hammering hard and fast, the boy chewed roughly, and swallowed.

It was only after the fruit was in his stomach and Sora was breathing out the tart aftertaste of the paupu that he noticed something familiar. Licking his lips, the same bitter juice of it had been on his lips when he'd woken from his nap.

'_I thought you were gonna share the paupu with Kairi.'_

'_Yeah... maybe I still will.'_

'_Well you better not, 'cause I don't want to end up as a third wheel or anything.'_

Sora remembered Riku's secretive smile, and sitting on the paupu tree, felt a wave of something both strange and warm to wash over him. It dulled him, and fingering his lips with a slightly stupefied expression of wonder, stared out to sea, and thought.

After a little while, the boy sucked in his breath to clear his head, and hopped off the trunk. But as a second thought, he turned, took up the paupu in his fist and hurled it as hard and as far as he could into the darkening water.

He watched the yellow star bob and hop on a distant wave.

_Things sure get stranger as you get older. _

But there was no more room in Sora's head for anything else, so full of thoughts of the raft, and leaving, and of Riku's strange behavior, that he couldn't embrace the idea of getting older at the same time. And so he instead let out a long and heavy sigh, and turned towards home. For now, he'd have to let it be.

_Let it sleep. It was just a made-up story anyway._

_

* * *

_

END


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